Escalate the Strike By Taking
It to the Port
Oakland Teachers:
The Deal Stinks – Vote It Down!
No Cuts, No Layoffs, No School Closures!
By Class Struggle Education Workers
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Jeff Chiu / AP
Teachers, staff, parents, students and supporters
at OEA rally at Oakland City Hall on the first day of the strike, Feb. 21.
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As the press conference announcing the agreement was live
on the OEA Facebook page there were lots of comments posted opposed to it (try
finding them now). At a meeting of the Rep Council today (Saturday, March 2)
many activists voiced opposition. Remember: the membership IS the union, and this
deal does not at all reflect what the membership voted to strike for. The tentative
agreement includes:
- A salary agreement that is really a pay cut. The tentative deal is for 11% over four years, or 2.75% per year. The rate of inflation last year in the Bay Area according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics was 3.9%. The average increase in Oakland apartment rents last year was 12.7%. As for the 3% signing bonus (bribe), the cost of living for Bay Area residents has already risen over 6% in the year and a half that Oakland teachers have been working without a contract. Do the math.
- Minimal cuts in class size. Class sizes will be cut by one (1) student in the coming year for “highest- needs” schools, and one (1) student for all schools in the following year. The difference between teaching a class of 30 vs. 32 students will be practically unnoticeable.
- Nothing to stop school closures. The “5 month pause” on new school closures is no win at all – in fact, it may aid the OUSD in closing schools. It means that Roots Academy would still be closed, and the School Board can order the other 23 schools on its chopping block closed during the summer recess when teachers are not there and parents are not mobilized.
- Nothing to stop charter schools. Getting the pro-charter School Board to send a hypocritical letter to state authorities calling for a temporary moratorium on new charters will achieve zero.
- No real increase in student support. No additional nurses, reduction of counselor caseload from 600:1 to 550:1? This won’t be “the schools our students deserve,” as the OEA rightly called for.
- Plus any gains will be paid for by cutting programs and laying off staff. The OUSD has already announced $30 million in cuts, including laying off as many as 150 classified staff represented by the SEIU and AFSCME. This deal is stabbing them in the back.
This tentative agreement is an insult to the educators who
undertook months of preparations for this strike and a slap in the face for the
students and parents who joined the picket lines and marches. Class Struggle
Education Workers urges Oakland teachers on Sunday to VOTE “NO” ON THE
TENTATIVE AGREEMENT.
Overturning a rotten contract negotiated by the union
leadership is a big deal. The House of Delegates of the Chicago Teachers Union
did it in 2012, whereupon the leadership (of the Caucus of Rank-and-file
Educators, or CORE) turned around and shoved the deal down the delegates’ throat
in a second vote. To be successful it is necessary to have a clear and simple message.
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Photo courtesy of Daphne Crane
Oakland School Board
member Jumoke Hinton-Hodge,
right, choking kindergarten teacher and OEA strike captain Darnisha Wright while trying to cross a picket line at La Escuelita Elementary School, March 1. |
The rotten deal is the product of the union bureaucracy (yes,
the OEA has one, we’re seeing it in action right now) that seeks to balance
between the employers and the union ranks, acting as an obstacle to militant
class struggle.
In going back to the bargaining table, in order to ensure rank-and-file
control, negotiations and strike activity should be under an ELECTED
STRIKE COMMITTEE.
Bottom-line strike demands should be: NO CUTS – NO
LAYOFFS – NO SCHOOL CLOSURES!
And to escalate the pressure on the District, TAKE
OEA PICKET LINES TO THE PORT OF OAKLAND where ILWU Local 34 has voted
to support the teachers strike and the ILWU Local 10 membership meeting enthusiastically
applauded OEA leaders on the first day of the strike.
Class Struggle Education Workers has called for union
action to shut down the port in solidarity with the teachers strike (see our
leaflet, “Mobilize
Bay Area Workers to Win Oakland Teachers Strike” on the CSEW site). CSEW supporters
in Oakland advocated this in meetings with strike activists this past week. So
have others. This deal, if approved, would short-circuit the decision of the
Rep Council to mass picket at the port next week.
A mass outpouring of striking teachers and supporters together
with dock workers at the port where the profits of Bay Area rulers are
generated could be key to winning a real victory.
The battle to defend public education against the
capitalist privatizers and their charter schools must be fought politically.
Ultimately it must be taken to Sacramento, not to lobby hat-in-hand but to
occupy and shut it down, as teachers from West Virginia to Arizona did against
Republican governments last year. That means mobilizing teachers throughout the
state, but above all, in deep-blue California, to be successful it requires a SHARP
BREAK WITH THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, the bosses’ party that is
centrally responsible for the education crisis facing us today. ■
Class
Struggle Education Workers (CSEW) is part of the fight for a
revitalization and transformation of the labor movement into an
instrument for the emancipation of the working class and the oppressed. See the CSEW program here.
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| Transport Workers and ILWU on first day of Oakland teachers strike, February 21. (Internationalist photo) |